Dozing markets jump on lower than expected November inflation

After opening lower, Indian equity markets despite a slew of measures announced by the government on Thursday, reacted positively to November inflation (WPI) number which came in at a lower than expected 7.24% for November 2012 against 7.45% for the previous month and 9.46% during the same month last year. Meanwhile, primary articles inflation rose to 9.42% as against 8.21% in the previous month. The food articles inflation also rose to 8.5% as compared to 6.62% in October. With these favorable numbers investors are now hopeful for the Reserve Bank of India’s rate cut in the next monetary policy due next week. In currency markets, after inflation numbers rupee also appreciated with significant movement in yields. On sectoral front, bank, realty, metal and oil stocks witnessed some brisk buying following the release of November inflation data. Few stocks from automobile, capital goods and information technology sectors too have moved up smartly, while power and FMCG stocks remain subdued. Fertiliser shares gained after the government approved a new policy to encourage investment in urea manufacturing, in a move seen expediting $6.5 billion in projects that have been held back. In global markets, Asian shares were mixed on Friday with a pick-up in China's manufacturing sector lending support but worries over US fiscal cliff weighing on investor sentiment. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,249 shares on the gaining side against 1,197 shares on the losing side while 120 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,284.77 up by 55.51 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 19,285.41 and 19,193.11. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index and one remain unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46% and Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.32%, Metal up by 0.77%, Bankex up by 0.74%, Oil & Gas up by 0.68% and Auto up by 0.54%. On the other hand, CD down by 0.95%, Power down by 0.34% and FMGC down by 0.12% were the top losers on the Sensex.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.82%, Tata Motors up by 1.74%, Jindal Steel up by 1.50%, Reliance up by 1.42%, TCS up by 1.32%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.15%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.72%,  BHEL was down by 0.61%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.54% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.50% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has set February 2013 as the deadline for nationwide Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which will allow users to preserve their numbers even if they move from one state to another. For the timely implementation of the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, the Department of Telecom has finalized the broad agenda for the next three months from December 2012 to February 2013.

As per the new telecom policy, the nationwide MNP allows users to retain their mobile numbers even when they shift between any of the 22 telecom circles of India. This move is, however, as per the request submitted by about 75.14 million subscribers by the end of October 2012, to different service providers for porting their mobile number.

Along with this, Sibal by February will also consider approval of spectrum assignment and pricing, unified licensing regime, M&A guidelines, finalisation of guidelines for spectrum sharing, creation of fund for R&D and manufacturing and MNP on a nationwide basis.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off three major challenges including deepening the penetration of basic telecom services, providing affordable and accessible broadband services, and strengthening the domestic manufacturing capabilities across the entire value chain in telecom and electronics for the industry and the government to take the telecom revolution to the next level.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,869.80 up by 18.30 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 5,870.05 and 5,839.15. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SBI up by 1.85%, Tata Motors up by 1.60%, Jindal Steel up by 1.58%, DLF up by 1.54%, and TCS up by 1.41%.

On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.73%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.59%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.11% Hero MotoCorp down by 0.93% and Lupin down by 0.88%, were the top losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite was up by 3.88%, Hang Seng up by 0.70% and Straits Times was up by 0.29%.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.66%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.22%, Nikkei 225 down by 0.05%, Seoul Composite was down by 0.39% and Taiwan Weighted was trading down by 0.75%.